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Robin jaunted into the living room of the apartment a few seconds after Foyle who was waiting for her with ferocious impatience.
«So now you know for sure,» he began without preamble. He seized her arm in a painful grip. «But you ain't go
«Let go of me!» Robin lashed him across his face. «Beast! Savage! Don't you dare touch me!»
Foyle released her and stepped back. The impact of her revulsion made him turn away angrily to conceal his face.
«So you've been malingering. You knew how to jaunte. You've been jauntlug all the while you've been pretending to learn in the primer class .
taking big jumps around the country; around the world, for all I know.»
«Yeah. I go from Times Square to Columbus Circle by way of. . most anywhere, Miss Robin.»
«And that's why you're always missing. But why? 'Why? What are you up to?»
An expression of possessed cu
He stopped shouting and glared at her in wild triumph. Robin backed away in alarm.
«For God's sake, what are you talking about?»
«'Vorga.' 'Vorga-T:1339.' Ever hear of her, Miss Robin? I found out where she is from Bo'ness amp; Uig's ship registry. Bo'ness amp; Uig are out in SanFran. I went there, me, the time when you was learning us the crosstown jaunte stages. Went out to SanFran, me. Found 'Vorga,' me. She's in Vancouver shipyards. She's owned by Presteign of Presteign. Heard of him, Miss Robin? Presteign's the biggest man on Terra, is all. But he won't stop me. I'll kill 'Vorga' filthy. And you won't stop me neither, Miss Robin.»
Foyle thrust his face close to hers. «Because I cover myself, Miss Robin. I cover every weak spot down the line. I got something on everybody who could stop me before I kill 'Vorga' . . .including you, Miss Robin.»
«Yeah. I found out where you live. They know up at the hospital. I come here and looked around. I read your diary, Miss Robin. You got a family on Callisto, mother and two sisters.»
«For God's sake!»
«So that makes you alien-belligerent. When the war started you and all the rest was given one month to get out of the I
«My mother and sisters have been trying to leave Callisto for a year and a half. We belong here. We…»
«Got you right here,» Foyle repeated. «You know what they do to spies? They cut information out of them. They cut you apart, Miss Robin. They take you apart, piece by piece…”
The Negro girl screamed. Foyle nodded happily and took her shaking shoulders in his hands. «I got you, is all, girl. You can't even run from me because all I got to do is tip Intelligence and where are you? There ain't nothing nobody can do to stop me; not the hospital or even Mr. Holy Mighty Presteign of Presteign.»
«Get out, you filthy, hideous. . . thing. Get out!»
«You don't like my face, Miss Robin? There ain't nothing you can do about that either.»
Suddenly he picked her up and carried her to a deep couch. He threw her down on the couch.
«Nothing,» he repeated.
Devoted to the principle of conspicuous waste, on which all society is based, Presteign of Presteign had fitted his Victorian mansion in Central Park with elevators, house phones, dumb-waiters and all the other laborsaving devices which jaunting had made obsolete. The servants in that giant gingerbread castle walked dutifully from room to room, opening and closing doors, and climbing stairs.
Presteign of Presteign arose, dressed with the aid of his valet and barber, descended to the morning room with the aid of an elevator, and breakfasted, assisted by a butler, footman, and waitresses. He left the morning room and entered his study. In an age when communication systems were virtually extinct-when it was far easier to jaunte directly to a man's office for a discussion than to telephone or telegraph-Presteign still maintained an antique telephone switchboard with an operator in his study.
«Get me Dagenham,» he said.
The operator struggled and at last put a call through to Dagenham Couriers, Inc. This was a hundred million credit organization of bonded jaunters guaranteed to perform any public or confidential service for any principal. Their fee was ~r i per mile. Dagenham guaranteed to get a courier around the world in eighty minutes.
Eighty seconds after Presteign's call was put through, a Dagenham courier appeared on the private jaunte stage outside Presteign's home, was identified and admitted through the jaunte-proof labyrinth behind the entrance. Like every member of the Dagenham staff, he was an M class jaunter, capable of teleporting a thousand miles a jump indefinitely, and familiar with thousands of jaunte co-ordinates. He was a senior specialist in chicanery and cajolery, trained to the incisive efficiency and boldness that characterized Dagenham Couriers and reflected the ruthlessness of its founder.
«Presteign?» he said, wasting no time on protocol.
«I want to hire Dagenham.»
«Ready, Presteign.»
«Not you. I want Saul Dagenham himself.»
«Mr. Dagenham no longer gives personal service for less than ~r 100,000.»
«The amount will be five times that.»
«Fee or percentage?»
«Both. Quarter of a million fee, and a quarter of a million guaranteed against 10 per cent of the total amount at risk.»
«Agreed. The matter?»
«PyrE.»
«Spell it, please.»
«The name means nothing to you?»
«Good. It will to Dagenham. PyrE. Capital P-y-r Capital E. Pronounced «pyre» as in funeral pyre. Tell Dagenham we've located the PyrE. He's engaged to get it. . . at all costs. . .through a man named Foyle. Gulliver Foyle.»
The courier produced a tiny silver pearl, a memo-bead, repeated Presteign's instructions into it, and left without another word. Presteign turned to his telephone operator. «Get me Regis Sheffield,» he directed.
Ten minutes after the call went through to Regis Sheffield's law office, a young law clerk appeared on Presteign's private jaunte stage, was vetted and admitted through the maze. He was a bright young man, with a scrubbed face and the expression of a delighted rabbit.
«Excuse the delay, Presteign,» he said. «We got your call in Chicago and I'm still only a D class five hundred miler. Took me a while getting here.»
«Is your chief trying a case in Chicago?»
«Chicago, New York and Washington. He's been on the jaunte from court to court all morning. We fill in for him when he's in another court.»
«I want to retain him.»
«Honored, Presteign, but Mr. Sheffield's pretty busy.»
«Not too busy for PyrE.»
«Sorry, sir; I don't quite…”
«No, you don't, but Sheffield will. Just tell him: PyrE as in funeral pyre, and the amount of his fee.»
«Which is?»
«Quarter of a million retainer and a quarter of a million guaranteed against 10 per cent of the total amount at risk.»
«And what performance is required of Mr. Sheffield?»
«To prepare every known legal device for kidnaping a man and holding him against the army, the navy and the police.»
«Quite. And the man?»
«Gulliver Foyle.»
The law clerk muttered quick notes into a memo-bead, thrust the bead into his ear, listened, nodded and departed. Presteign left the study and ascended the plush stairs to his daughter's suite to pay his morning respects.
In the homes of the wealthy, the rooms of the female members were blind, without windows or doors, open only to the jaunting of intimate members of the family. Thus was morality maintained and chastity defended. But since Olivia Presteign was herself blind to normal sight, she could not jaunte. Consequently her suite was entered through doors closely guarded by ancient retainers in the Presteign clan livery.